is it better to avoid EMH at the parks? Are crowds lower when another park has EMH?

[lisaanddenny]

Has anyone been to the parks NOT having EMH and find the crowds to be more bearable?

 

[spatter1234]

We always avoid morning EMH. According to the books and the on-line tour guide sites, it is worth it just to be at any other park at opening time than wasting that 1 hour. IMHO we always have great luck heading to another park for the day.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We've done WDW 40x's and never really paid alot of attention to morning early hour, but this last trip, January 2008, we were up and out earlier than usual and decided to take the boat to the MK. EMH was going on and it was quite crowded before the turnstiles but we waited and watched the train come in with the characters and saw all the glitz and glitter of opening, kinda cool and proceeded into the turnstiles, which wasn't all that bad. Once the other guests fanned out we ambled our way down Main Street to Adventureland and it seemed to be virtually empty. We had a grand time on the rides, even did Aladdin's Carpet and Jungle Cruise, just a walk on and POC was the same, rode POC 3 times and then headed to Frontierland and did most of the attractions all the way to the Haunted Mansion. Here's where we started to encounter the other guests and decided to make for Tomorrowland and head on out of the park. It wasn't as bad as I have read on here, rather nice so we opted to try HS EMH also, same thing, quite comfortable. I guess you never know until you give it a try, no guide service of magazine will know the true answer, they just guess for past years.

We always do evening EMH's, but we don't get there when they start but wait an hour, alot of people leave by then and the parks are just about empty, at least for our stay and the MK staying open till 1 am, most families are long gone. If you don't try it you'll never know and its your money. I read alot of stuff that isn't so, we just go and do our thing, if we encounter a huge crowd we skip to another park, that's whats good about hopper tickets.

 

[siouxi31]

My rule lately has been that EMH morning are effecient if you'd like to get alot of rides in.

If there is a park that has EMH evening, I usually do that park the next morning (thinking that most people would have been there for the extra evening hours). I feel pretty successful with this rule.

 

[Saratoga Souris]

We always use EMH to our advantage.
If you use the morning EMH - you must get there for opening! You can get a whole lot squeezed in, in a short period of time. Once the crowds start picking up, I either leave or do attractions that are more leisurely (like Tom Sawyer Island) or COP, TTA, etc....
Evening EMH are my favourite. By the time the last hour rolls around, you usually have the Park to yourself.

 

[wilde_oscar]

My rule lately has been that EMH morning are effecient if you'd like to get alot of rides in.

If there is a park that has EMH evening, I usually do that park the next morning (thinking that most people would have been there for the extra evening hours). I feel pretty successful with this rule.

good rule. morning emh always works well, if you get there at rope drop and/or park hop after lunch to a park with lower crowds. But then again, getting to the parks early always works no matter what time of year.

Evening EMH runs the spectrum... I have been to some that are packed tight, and some that are empty.